'Oh, don't be so horrid,' Anthea was saying, gently and earnestly.
'We LOVE cats--dear pussy-soft things. We wouldn't hurt them for
worlds. Would we, Pussy?'
And Jane answered that of course they wouldn't. And still the
policeman seemed unmoved by their eloquence.
'Now, look here,' he said, 'I'm a-going to see what's in that room
beyond there, and--'
His voice was drowned in a wild burst of mewing and squeaking. And
as soon as it died down all four children began to explain at once;
and though the squeaking and mewing were not at their very loudest,
yet there was quite enough of both to make it very hard for the
policeman to understand a single word of any of the four wholly
different explanations now poured out to him.
'Stow it,' he said at last. 'I'm a-goin' into the next room in the
execution of my duty. I'm a-goin' to use my eyes--my ears have
gone off their chumps, what with you and them cats.'
And he pushed Robert aside, and strode through the door.
'Don't say I didn't warn you,' said Robert.
'It's tigers REALLY,' said Jane. 'Father said so. I wouldn't go
in, if I were you.'
But the policeman was quite stony; nothing any one said seemed to
make any difference to him. Some policemen are like this, I
believe. He strode down the passage, and in another moment he
would have been in the room with all the cats and all the rats
(musk), but at that very instant a thin, sharp voice screamed from
the street outside--
'Murder--murder! Stop thief!'
The policeman stopped, with one regulation boot heavily poised in
the air.
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